All Eyes on Me

JUSTINIAN

What a thing that I have seen tonight!

Full of fire is my mind,

That hours on has my body gone,

Yet kept captive all my thoughts behind.

This maid— what maid? What's this I feel,

Of eyes that flash, and wits as sharp as legion steel?

To look, to speak, to spend a moment there,

Her spirit, keen as winter, laid me bare.

Is this Justinian? Is he yet his own

To find his cunning so ensnared?

Can dissembling actress hide a witch

And boldly to bewitch a prince she dared?

Nay. I, Justin still; my wits, a whole; myself, yet mine.

It is some wonder of her hath caught mine eyne.

The heathen Turks that tremble at the Emperor’s name

Equal not her tongue, a sword that pierces claim,

And where others led like asses, she holds no fear of me,

An unbound mare, who shakes her mane defiantly.

I will go back to where that lightning struck,

And if I am rent again, it is a blessed luck,

For many’s the miracle that is once, and away,

But few so rare I may see every day. 
 

One nice thing about getting into a stage and screen program is that I might just be able to write all the scripts I've been wanting to write for ages but never could justify committing the time to.

You all know I love the classics, particuarly Shakespeare. I've always wanted to attempt a full-length five-act play in the style of Shakespeare, shooting for the poetic blank verse dialogue in iambic pentameter and telling a suitably epic story. Not that I think I am a poet on that level by any stretch of the imagination, but I love the style and would love to try to see if I could make something decent. Though To Think of Nothing was not written in verse, it was an exercise in writing poetic dialogue, and I have always been pretty pleased with how it came out. It is pleasing to the ear, suitably old-sounding, and yet not excessively difficult or unnatural to say. In fact, I found it easier to write good dialogue in that style than I do in modern style. So maybe if I worked hard enough, I could produce something in blank verse iambic pentameter that wasn't half bad. I was thinking of using the story of the Byzantine rulers Justinian and Theodora as the subject. I always liked them and their romance, set against the backdrop of the Byzantine political struggles. I don't know, maybe that's final thesis material.

At the other end of the spectrum, my distaste and dissatisfaction with the Vagina Monologues has made me want to write my own version. Not exactly women talking about their vaginas, but women talking about life, sex, gender, relationships, friends, work, family, motherhood, and other aspects of how living as women intersects with feminism. But, as I see it, more genuinely feminist than the VMs. I haven't thought it out much, but I thought it might be interesting.

There's also some of my previous work, like the screenplay I wrote the first part of for class at Brandeis, or Paschal Moon, the other one act I wrote for Playwrighting. Maybe I could submit it for credit, and work on completing, improving, and revising. I never really was happy with the screenplay, which was inspired by the childhood of my grandfather and I would really like to be good. Who knows? Maybe my teachers will want specific things, or maybe I'll have the freedom to use what I want.